Sister Act Review

Sister Act

(Tour - The Mayflower Theatre, Southampton)

After seeing South Pacific I needed to see a more energetic musical, and what better than Sister Act. Based on the Whoopi Goldberg film, the musical premiered a few years ago at the London Palladium and is now touring around the country. I had previously seen some of the film. I am also familiar with the cast recording and enjoy a number of the songs. I therefore went in expecting to be entertained by this musical.

Deloris Van Cartier (Cynthia Erivo) is a singer with ambitions to become a Diva. However, she sees her boyfriend, a gangster called Curtis Jackson (Cavin Cornwall), shoot an undercover cop. She escapes and with the help of a police desk chief, Eddie (Edward Baruwa) who happens to be an old school friend of hers, she enters the witness protection programme and is sent to a languishing convent. Here Deloris struggles to accept life as a nun under the disdainful eye of the Mother Superior (Denise Black). However, she finds a way to use her singing talent to revamp the convent's choir, which revives the convent's popularity.

Overall the songs that are sung by Deloris, with and without the choir, are the best moments of the musical. It is thrilling watching her and the nuns sing the biggest ensemble pieces during the production. Elsewhere Curtis' henchmen provides some comedic moments, such as the song 'Lady in the Long Black Dress', whilst Eddie has a touching moment telling us of his desire to impress Deloris during 'I could be that guy'. However some songs were cut from the musical, such as 'It's Good to be a Nun' and as a result some of the characters feel less rounded. It did feel as though the characters came under two groups,  the gangsters and the nuns, and most of them never stood out.

Cynthia Erivo as Deloris is the driving force of this musical. She has a strong voice and I enjoyed watching her play the role. The same can be said for most of the cast, despite the cuts, and Julie Atherton, Laurie Scarth and Jacqueline Clarke played sisters Mary Robert, Mary Patrick and Mary Lazarus with vigour. So too did Michael Starke as Monsignor O'Hara. Cavin Cornwall was charismatic as the leader of the small mob, played by Gavin Alex, Daniel Stockton and Tyrone Huntley. However I was looking forward to seeing the Mother Superior, after listening to Sheila Hancock singing Here within these walls, but I felt that Denise Black struggled with her songs. I would have preferred to have seen someone older in the role, like Sheila Hancock.

The sets were very good, especially during the ensemble and dance sequences. A number of the monastery scenes though were a bit uninspired, as they were shown against the general background of the monastary. A lot of effort was given to the colourful costumes and lighting, especially during the updated choral songs. Also, with the use of a sound system the music was much clearer than that of South Pacific. This was a relief and I was pleased

This was a big step up from South Pacific. Although the story is not coveered as thoroughly as in the the original production, and the set designs were occasionally average, I was entertained by the whole musical. This is worth seeing at a high Bargain.